Kirby Hocutt should stay at Miami if it's relevance he desires

Hurricanes athletic director is reportedly set to take the Texas Tech job

University of Miami Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt speaks to the media… (Al Diaz, The Miami Herald…)

February 24, 2011|Mike Berardino, Sun Sentinel Columnist

This has to be a joke, right?

Kirby Hocutt, one of the best young athletic directors in college sports, is reportedly preparing to leave the University of Miami for Texas Tech.

Really?

You mean he's going to trade the "U" for the "Who?"

Coral Gables for Lubbock?

Year-round sunshine for tumbleweeds and twisters?

The folks in West Texas had better be doubling his salary.

And setting him up with his own backyard oil well.

And throwing in free college educations for his two young sons.

Not at Texas Tech, of course. At some other school.

A real school.

Like Miami.

Yeah, I know Hocutt grew up in Sherman, Texas, about 300 miles east of his potential new workplace. And yes, I realize he's always been a Big 12 kind of guy.

But this isn't the University of Texas we're talking about here. This isn't even Oklahoma, where Hocutt spent several years learning under respected AD Joe Castiglione.

This is Texas Tech.

Afterthought U.

Where the football coach is Tommy Tuberville, who called Hocutt a couple months back and couldn't even get into the mix for Miami's next football coach.

Where the basketball coach is Pat Knight, handpicked son of Bobby, and things haven't been going so great since the irascible one left for ESPN. Imagine having to make a change there as one of your first moves.

Sorry, I'm not seeing a whole lot of "relevance" waiting there in Red Raider land.

Remember Hocutt's news conference the day after he dumped Randy Shannon? That was the repeated refrain: relevance.

"We need someone that can … lead us back to relevance in college football," Hocutt said in November.

"We will be relevant and we will do what it takes to get there," he added.

And then Hocutt went out and spent the next two weeks getting punked by Jon Gruden, ignored by Dan Mullen, underwhelmed by Randy Edsall, lobbied by Bernie Kosar, tempted by Marc Trestman and finally convinced by Al Golden.

Golden, Hocutt said in December, was the man to "inspire this football program for greatness" and "continue our journey to get to the top."

Now, barely two months later and after just three years on the job, Hocutt is hopping off that rocket to relevance. Or at least strongly considering a fresh start somewhere else.

Golden can't be feeling too good about this, although a five-year contract for $10 million-plus should buy him some time to impress the new AD.

And how about Frank Haith? Just days ago, Hocutt let it be known he would stand by his men's basketball coach despite another disappointing season.

That same faith might not carry over if Hocutt bolts.

Some will speculate that private tensions between Hocutt and Miami President Donna Shalala are behind this move. Shalala was a noted Shannon supporter, and she couldn't have liked the way her university looked during the botched courtship of Gruden.

But Shalala, like any school president, needs to keep the pump primed, and Hocutt was a master at raising the big bucks. A new $5 million athletic center will be built with a donation he secured.